Raze-Lirak
'Raze-Lirak' Scourge of the Age of Storm, Slayer of Angels, Frozen Lord of the Damned, End of Light and Warmth 'Description: '''Raze-Lirak is a tall, thin skeletal figure, clad in robes of the deepest black. Spun from corrupted strands of starlight, they seem to glow inwards, drawing light to its inevitable death. He wears no cowl to hide the skull that is his face, and an icy crown frozen from the air itself lies atop it. His eye-sockets have no backs, and only void and shadow lies within. His voice is cold, like his very presence. His hands and feet cannot be seen, pure darkness flowing from within his robes to hide them. '''Age: '''1573 years of age '''Affiliations: '''None at present, although he has in the past led the Accursed Host and the Frozen Lords of the Damned '''Personality: ' Raze-Lirak is among the oldest beings to exist, and knows it. While he is vastly weakened from his imprisonment, he maintains an aura of superiority, always arrogant in his power. When he has no urgency in his manner, contests of intellect are favored by him, though he has no qualms in unnerving others with his aura. He angers rarely and coldly. It is something to behold to see his wrath. He has been known to methodically pick apart a man from without, destroying all they love and care for before showing the (former) immensity of his power. He lacks much of his former ability in nearly all things, though he currently works to correct that, but it occasionally catches him off guard. When he himself is uneasy or has been defeated, he is caught off guard, unaccustomed to being less than the greatest. He is cruel, but has a certain degree of honor. He will always repay debts - save when one is foolish enough to spurn his repayment. History: Raze-Lirak is truly old. He began life as a human, a member of a small family which eked out an existence for itself, and generally, got by just fine. An old man who lived nearby would occasionally visit them, though, and buy the strangest things- bones, black stones, ice, blood. Raze-Lirak (though, of course, that was not his name then) would sometimes visit the old man, to learn more about what he did with all the strange things he bought. Thus Raze-Lirak was initiated into Necromancy. The old man was, in truth, a lich himself, one of no small power. His harmless requests were, in fact, made of a desire to experiment with the dead. Raze-Lirak learned much from the lich, but desired more power. After several years of education, he managed to locate and steal the phylactery of the lich. With this in hand, he forced knowledge and power from it, growing stronger daily. Eventually, decades of forced servitude later, the lich broke, and revealed a secret that the boy, man now, had never asked of. It revealed how one became a lich. Raze-Lirak had no problem with the first part of the ritual - the heartblood one who trusts you is easy enough to come by when your parents are fools - yet the next part gave him pause. He had to give up the phylactery of the lich he had enslaved and allow it to change him. He knew very well what buttons it had, though, and decided how to become a lich without the chance of the old one botching the ritual intentionally. He challenged it. He claimed that with his lichdom, he would become greater than his teacher, and outright challenged him as such. The old lich agreed to a contest of power, and performed the unholy rite perfectly. An immense magical battle ensued, wiping out much of the surrounding area, before Raze-Lirak won. He stole the power and items of his former master and Progenitor, and destroyed him. After this, he began travelling, gaining power and annihilating many townships. On his journey, he created new liches from necromancers he encountered, and formed the Frozen Lords of the Damned, a group of liches heading an army of undeath. He led it, the Accursed Host, against humanity, and destroyed many of the kingdoms of man before he challenged the Empire. An angel of Paradise, one who believed that destroying an upstart necromancer and protecting the Empire would be an easy task, attacked Raze-Lirak and the Accursed Host. Raze-Lirak emerged victorious, ultimately, but Horag, his weapon and the source of much of his power, was damaged significantly. Knowing that even the full power of the Frozen Lords could not now hope to stand up to a second angel, he retreated, hoping to find some way to strike without invoking divine retribution. The broken power of the angel he slew, though, did not disperse. Instead, it descended, and empowered eleven men, imbuing them with divine might. They became the Council of Eleven, the greatest sorcerers of mankind. They prepared a way of destroying the lich forever, and fell upon him and the Host. Their own powers were more than a match for his armies even including the other Frozen Lords, and the divine power they had gained made them a worthy battle for him. After a conflict that shattered an island, only Raze-Lirak and the First of the Council remained, both nearly drained of power. Raze-Lirak would have won - and perhaps gone on to end all life - had the Councilman not done something unexpected. He and his fellow Council Members had known they could not defeat Raze-Lirak outright. The lich, ancient and crafty, had drawn power from many sources. So they had prepared a backup plan. They created a tomb, deep below Taelarys, and in it, they placed a coffin. The Council warded it with the most powerful magics they could muster with an angel's power on their side, and prepared it such that, when they died, their own power and souls would gather, rather than disperse. The First slew himself, as Raze-Lirak gathered power to do the deed, and the combined spirits of the Council, accompanied by the reguvenated Angel, struck at the much weakened lich, imprisoning him in their great crypt in the Undercity. There he lay, bereft of all his strength, until a human stumbled upon his resting place over a millennium later, after the wards had decayed. The Freeing of Raze-Lirak: “I.... awake.” Tarrel shivered as the chill voice snaked and writhed through the air – and his mind. In retrospect, perhaps exploration of these crypts was not the greatest of ideas. He had hoped to find something with power, or perhaps even simple gold, buried with the ancient noble whose tomb he plundered. Judging by the sound of it, he have found far more than he had intended. The coffin on the dais at the head of the room he had entered glowed with an unholy black light, and emanations of cold began to sweep over him. “I thank you. Had you not come here, found me, I would likely have languished forever behind these seals. You have freed me, and I owe you a debt. Ask, mortal, and I shall repay you.” The voice was louder this time, and the pulses of icy energy seemed to wax greater, as the lid of the coffin began to crack and the light grew yet darker. “Sir, I, I, ah, didn't mean to disturb you sir, I'll be going now, if you don't mind?” Tarrel's voice came out in a wavering tone, quaking with the sound of terror. “I mean, if you want to give me something, I certainly wouldn't mind, but I don't really see a need for payment, sir.” His voice grew higher and more strained and began to crack as he continued, feeling his heart slow from the freezing air. He leaped in fright as the glass candles he had *liberated* from the the earlier tombs shattered in his pack. The voice continued to issue forth, echoing around the crypt as the stone slabs at the entrance slammed shut. It was now tinged with a dark amusement.'' “If you see no debt, then who am I to argue with you. Perhaps you shall give me a gift, instead. Perhaps, you will give me your LIFE!”'' As the echoes of the words trailed off into silence, a great crack resounded throughout the room, and the coffin shattered. A skeleton arose, clad in deep, black robes of some ancient material. It pointed a finger at Tarrel, who was nearly in shock from fright, and he felt his life being torn from him.'' “I am lich, you fool among fools, and you have freed me. I am Raze-lirak, Scourge of the Age of Storm, great among the Frozen Lords of the Damned! I am the End of Light and Warmth, the Slayer of Angels! I was ancient before your great-great grandfather was conceived! And now, I am free!” '' These words were the last Tarrel heard before the horrid finger snuffed out his existence, feeding his soul to the lich. Advantages: *Phylactery I (Unique): Raze-Lirak cannot die so long as his phylactery is intact. A phylactery with only one advantage spent has the following traits. He will regenerate from it, considerably weakened (-1 Advantage) should he die. This may take months or years. If a character other than Raze-Lirak controls his phylactery, he is forced to obey them in all things. A lich with Phylactery I whose phylactery is destroyed dies instantly. *Soul-Tear I (Human, Combat only) (Uncommon) –Raze-Lirak may point a finger at a living human and attempt to tear out their soul. This only works on a character currently affected by at least two ranks of Chill Darkness auras, who has been for at least a minute. *Wrapped in the Shade I (Uncommon)- Allows Raze-Lirak to cloak himself in darkness made manifest, changing his physical form and apparel as he wishes. The change is physical, and thus affects all the senses, but is not entirely real. There are several restrictions. All clothing created thusly has no combat effects. Nothing created by this ability can be weaponized in any way, shape, fashion, or form. It cannot be used to imitate the form of a currently living individual. All things created of darkness cannot leave possession of the creator. A shadow mage, necromancer, or illusionist can recognize that these changes are magical in nature, but cannot passively breach them without an advantage to the effect of piercing shadows/illusions. *Chill Darkness Auras: The Chill Darkness Auras can be passively exerted by Raze-Lirak at will. *Aura of Cold I (Uncommon) Aura of Fear I (Common) Aura of Darkness I (Common) 'Story Elements: 'Lich